I attended the 4th annual Flat Cat Classic flathead catfish fishing tournament May 2,3,4 2014. What a fantastic event! The comraderie was fantastic, great food, wonderful prizes, trophies, cash awards, raffles, and some truly big fish. First prize was a 49 pound flathead caugh by a first timer...his first catfish! Second place was 38 pounds, third was 32 pounds. Heaviest channel catfish prize went to a 8.9 pound channel cat. And smallest flathead was @ 10 inches long.I hooked a contender, but it broke my 50 pound test mono leader after @ 1 minute of fighting. Really big fish. It was like trying to raise a Buick from the depths. Losing it was quite a disapointment. Next year I'm using titanium or stainless steel leaders. Still had a fantastic time and will be attending this event every year from now on.

Towed my new boat with my new truck to Bartlett lake for some sunfish, bass, and channel/flathead catfish action. Only got one very nice 9 to 10 inch green sunfish and one 1 pound channel cat, but my new boat ran like a dream, and my new truck towed it like a feather. Saw lots of wild bird life; snowy egrets, great blue herrons, bald eagles, turkey vultures, cormorants, and a few ducks. All in all, a very pleasant time on the water!

We arrived at the lake and headed up river. Beached the boat next to "Flathead Ed", who 6 hours before our arrival, landed the new Arizona state record flathead catfish ;76.5 pounds.We didn't do so well, we each caught a 1 pound channel cat, and in the pre-dawn I caught a 6.75 pound channel cat. Oh well, still a great weekend on the water with my fishing partner Danny.

Fished mainly at The Point campground. Quite crowded. While fishing for sunfish for flathead cat bait I caught a 6 pound channel cat on my 5/6 weight fly rod. WOW! What a great fight on that light rear. Took @ 10 minutes to land it. Later that night I hooked what must have been a BIG flathead on my medium heavy channel cat rig because I couldn't turn or stop the fish, after @ 60 to 90 seconds it wrapped my line around a snag and I lost it. Also caught a 12" yellow bullhead and a channel cat the same size. Lots of bluegill and green sunfish.

Fished mainly at The Point campground. Caught a 6 pound channel cat while fishing for sunfish on my 5/6 weight fly rod. Took @ 10 minutes to land it on a small red wet fly. Later hooked what must have been a BIG flathead on my medium-heavh channel cat rig. Couldn't turn or stop the fish, wrapped my line around a snag and I lost it. Caught a couple other channels and a 12" yellow bullhead. Lots of sunfish.

Fished mainly Humbug Cove. The lake level was drwan down as low as I've ever seen it and made fishing tough. The up side was that I got to check out structure and the creek channel that are normally submerged, and that will be helpful when the water level returns to normal.

This trip was more of a sight seeing trip than fishing, although I did a little fishing. This was My wife's first time out on my boat "Pooder Pie" and we took our boxer Molly along for the ride. In the photos you can see bulls and wild donkeys that came down to the water's edge as I was fishing, also a photo of Rita and Molly. Happy fishing!

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